Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1925, Volume I

893.74/613: Telegram

The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

Peking, September 21, 1925—4 p.m.
[Received September 21—3:33 p.m.]

405. Your telegram 258 of September 19, 11 a.m.

1. The Chief Executive assured me this morning in an interview that the Federal Telegraph Company’s contract will be carried out and that whole-hearted support will be given by China to the opendoor policy which China considers necessary to its own interests. Tuan also stated that his Government is most anxious not to have any one nationality control its wireless communication.

2. Tuan was surprisingly frank in speaking of China’s weakness and of the difficulties which could be created by Japan, especially in Manchuria, if China should antagonize the Japanese on a question which he said they had presented to him as a life and death matter because of fear that the more powerful wireless station to be built at Shanghai would be able through interference to dominate Japan’s system of naval radio communications.

3. Tuan requested earnestly that we allay the apprehensions of the Japanese by agreeing to tripartite discussions. I insisted that we would not be in a position to take part on a satisfactory basis in any discussions with Japan until our interests had been placed on an equal footing with Japanese interests and until the Chinese Government had proven its willingness to act according to its obligations in this matter. Tuan then inquired whether I would be willing to give assurance that after the Federal contract had been put into effect we would be ready to discuss a mutual accommodation of interests between the Federal and Mitsui Companies. I had conveyed this very assurance to him in a conversation a month ago and I told him at once that I was ready to renew the assurance on behalf of both our Government and the American interests concerned and that we would be prepared at that time to deal with the question on a most generous and friendly basis.

4. Tuan took this as a concession by us which would remove to a great extent his difficulties in dealing with the Japanese. He intimated that if I would agree to put it in writing he would consult with the Ministers of Communications and Foreign Affairs tomorrow morning with a view to having the Federal wireless contract put into effect.

5. I told Tuan that I would be quite prepared to arrange an exchange of notes with the Minister of Foreign Affairs by which he would give a favorable reply to my repeated inquiries as to whether the Federal contract is to be put into effect; and in acknowledgment I would write that the American interests, with the sympathetic approval of our Government, would be ready, after the necessary steps had been taken to make the contract effective, to enter into discussions with Mitsui Company representatives and the Chinese Ministry of Communications in order to reach an accommodation of their respective interests in the hope that effective business arrangements would be made which would be fair and profitable to all interested parties.

6. Tuan urged that for the time being the matter should be treated as absolutely confidential save for the discussions which would be necessary with the local representatives of the Federal wireless interests. His reason for keeping the matter confidential was evidently the desire to avoid antagonisms which premature publicity might arouse.

7. I shall inform you at once of any definite developments resulting from the assurances which Tuan gave me.

8. I am mailing to Tokyo copy of this telegram.

MacMurray